To Nourish Body and Spirit

The Secret to Greater Success with Weight Loss

The tsunami of obesity refuses to let up. Pills and potions may prove worthless or harmful. Cutting out favorite sweets and fatty foods taxes self-control, and special diets may work only for a brief time. What to do? How can we curb the continuing expansion of our waistlines?

We often overlook a major cause of obesity. It’s so easy, yet few practice what it takes. What is this magic bullet? Portion control! Yep, we put too much on our plates and lap up every morsel. My mother would say about my sister, “Her eyes are bigger than her stomach.” She thought she could eat more than she could. That doesn’t seem to be the case with most of us. We fill our plates, and even if we do begin to feel full, we keep eating. It takes our brains about 20 minutes to catch up with our stomach and sense a feeling of fullness.

How do we resolve this problem? Most of us fail to recognize what a serving is. We don’t eat servings, we eat portions. They are different. A serving is a specified amount of a given food from nutritional guidelines. Labeled products list serving amounts. If a product says it contains two servings and we eat the whole thing, then in actuality we have eaten two servings. Foods may vary slightly by products or categories, but a serving size is close to the following scale.

Fresh fruit—–1 small to medium whole piece

Cooked fruit——½ cup

Raw vegetables—–1 cup

Cooked vegetables—–½ cup

Meat/poultry/fish—–a piece about the size of a deck of cards

Cereals—–about ½ to 1 cup (see the box for exact amounts)

Breads—–1 slice, buns and similar breads are 2 servings

Milk—–1 cup (preferably skim)

Nuts—–1 ounce (12 almonds/7 walnut halves)

To keep that scale from climbing, take a look at how much you eat. If you are a hearty eater and tend to pile your plate high, keep serving sizes in mind and consciously eat less. Measure exact amounts of foods eaten at home until you can visualize how much of a certain food is a serving. Below are other tips to help that scale go down.

When you eat out, consider sharing your meal with another person in your group. Or ask for a take-out box and remove half the food before you begin eating.

If you choose high-calorie foods such as pizza or sweetened beverages, order the smallest size.

When you begin to feel full, stop eating.

Resign from the “clean-plate-club.”

Discipline yourself not to return for seconds.

A portion size is how much we choose to eat at one time. It may be a half serving, but often it is one and one-half or more servings. Many other factors relate to losing weight such as changing sugary beverages to no-calorie drinks or choosing low-fat dairy products. But serving size is often a culprit that slips up on us. Conquer this bully and watch weight slowly dwindle. What have you got to lose except weight?